Turn of the Tide (film)

Turn of the Tide is a 1935 British drama film directed by Norman Walker and starring John Garrick, Geraldine Fitzgerald and Wilfrid Lawson. It was the first feature film made by J. Arthur Rank. Lacking a distributor for his film, Rank set up his own distribution and production company which subsequently grew into his later empire.

The film contains many Whitby registered boats (WY) and contains much documentary-style footage of making and repairing lobster creels.

Plot
The film is set in the fictional Yorkshire fishing village of Bramblewick and relates the rivalry between two fishing families. It is filmed mainly around Robin Hood's Bay (evidenced in the WY identity codes on the fishing boats).

The characters speak in the local Yorkshire accent and dialect. Rivalry between the lobster fishermen begins when one boat is fitted with a new diesel engine. Ropes are cut so the lobsters cannot be retrieved. The feuding comes to an end when a man from one family says he wants to marry a girl from the other family.

The work is based on the 1932 novel Three Fevers by Leo Walmsley.

Cast

 * John Garrick as Marney Lunn
 * J. Fisher White as Isaac Fosdyck
 * Geraldine Fitzgerald as Ruth Fosdyck
 * Wilfrid Lawson as Luke Fosdyck
 * Moore Marriott as Tindal Fosdyck
 * Sam Livesey as Henry Lunn
 * Niall MacGinnis as John Lunn
 * Joan Maude as Amy Lunn
 * Derek Blomfield as Steve Lunn
 * Hilda Davies as Mrs. Lunn

Reception
Writing for The Spectator in 1935, Graham Greene remarked that the film was "unpretentious and truthful", and "one of the best English films [he] ha[d] yet seen". Rejecting contemporary critical comparison of the film to Man of Aran, Greene suggested that where Man of Aran had featured sentimentality, Turn of the Tide's director "Norman Walker is concerned with truth, [...] and the beauty his picture catches is that of exact statement".

Although the film was originally considered a box-office disappointment it was eventually voted the sixth best British movie of 1936.

Britmovie called it a "refreshingly compassionate drama that benefits from being filmed on location at Robin Hood's Bay and Whitby".